In New Haven, Justice Sotomayor shares the story of her life

(Mara Lavitt — New Haven Register) October 121, 2013 New HavenSouthern Connecticut State University president Mary Papazian held a conversation with U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Afterward, Sotomayor walked through the audience greeting them and being photographed with them.

(Mara Lavitt — New Haven Register) October 121, 2013 New HavenSouthern Connecticut State University president Mary Papazian held a conversation with U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Afterward, Sotomayor walked through the audience greeting them and being photographed with them.

NEW HAVEN >> It’s not every day that a U.S. Supreme Court Justice comes to town to reflect on personal hardships and share her deepest fears.

Yet Justice Sonia Sotomayor did just that, sitting down Monday evening with Southern Connecticut State University President Mary Papazian to chat about family, growing up in the South Bronx and deciding on a career in law.

“The burdens of judgement are ... enormous,” said Sotomayor, 59, who joined the nation’s highest court in 2009. “In a courtroom, there are winners, but there’s always a loser.”

This was Sotomayor’s second recent visit to New Haven. In May, Yale University awarded her an honorary degree. Sotomayor earned a Yale Law School degree in 1979.

Earlier on Monday, Sotomayor met with seventh and eighth graders from Columbus Academy in New Haven. She also talked with representatives from various SCSU student groups.

At the university’s Lyman Center for the Performing Arts, freshmen who had read Sotomayor’s memoir, “My Beloved World,” made up half the audience. They sat in rapt attention as Sotomayor described a childhood fraught with tension and loss.

Her father, an alcoholic, died when Sotomayor was a child; she developed juvenile diabetes at age 7; the housing project where she lived was riddled with discarded drug paraphernalia.

Yet over time, she said, she came to see growing up in impoverished surroundings was “not necessarily a negative, always.”

Rather, it forced her to find ways to make herself happy and “figure out it’s not your environment that makes you happy. It’s how you live in it.”

In her book, Sotomayor wrote of her childhood affinity for solving puzzles and reading Nancy Drew mysteries. She also noted it was an episode of the TV program “Perry Mason” that inspired her to consider a life in the courtroom.

She told the students that when she attended school at Princeton University and Yale, she sought out a “comfort zone” through Latino student organizations, to help her adjust to an Ivy League environment.

But she also advised, “The trick is not to let that anchor you and hold you back. Use it as a launching pad to explore the larger community.”

Sotomayor admitted fear of failure has been a constant companion as she achieved greater success. She even noted that during the Supreme Court confirmation process, she had a moment when she considered withdrawing her name. It particularly weighed on her that some critics questioned whether she was smart enough for the job.

What kept her going, she said, was a group of friends who refused to let her give up.

Throughout the talk, Sotomayor spoke of her Puerto Rican heritage and the insights she’s drawn from being bilingual. Understanding the language of another culture breaks down stereotypes, she said, because it reveals the core values all cultures share while illuminating “a beauty that you can’t hear or understand in your own language.”

One thing that didn’t come up during Monday’s talk was the inner workings of the court. The closest she came was when she offered that she’s never been good at remembering names of cases. She prefers to focus more on details of her cases, she said ‑ the interaction of people in their environment.

She also made it exceedingly clear how much she loves being a Supreme Court justice.

When Papazian suggested that Sotomayor was young enough to have many other accomplishments ahead of her, Sotomayor quickly interjected.

“I’m not leaving this job,” she said. “That was my last confirmation hearing.”